It's My Party and I'll Knit If I Want To by Sharon Aris

OK this is my second attempt at writing about a book I've read this year.  Only I actually read most of this last year, it was a birthday present so I got it mid December.  Then I took it to my mums over Christmas and couldn't figure out which bag it was in when I got home so I started reading one of my Christmas gifts.  But I finally made an effort and found it and finished it.



This is what Amazon has to say about the book (don't know why it describes it as a cook book, it's not).

It's a memoir of a sort examining why knitting has become so popular and chronicling the authors experiences of learning to knit and trying to discover what it was about it that had changed and gotten so many young people into what was previously a very traditional and older persons activity.

It's very interesting and I'm really glad I read it.  If I'd have had a block of several hours spare I probably could have read it a lot quicker or even in one go but it was nice to read it in several short blocks over several days (which turned into a couple of weeks when I frustratingly lost the book for some days).  I particularly liked the story of the woman who was making a knitted tea cosy to cover her house with.  I could relate to a lot of what was written.  

A lot of what was written about why people enjoyed knitting was stuff that I'd not considered.  Having not really gotten beyond the fact I like to knit personally and occasional wonderings to start with about how amazing it is a piece of what is essentially string and some pointy sticks can make such a wonderful item and lovely material with little effort, I was surprised to find that a lot of the deeper reasons made me think that either I could see that or even that I could see that as part of what I get out of it too.

There was also a lot about how knitting is the new feminism.  It's interesting to consider that but I came to no conclusions of my own.

The only downside to this book (and it isn't one really) is that when I saw it in Borders and read the back I thought from what i said (or I assumed) it was based around examining knitting in the UK.  In fact it's examining knitting in Australia.  Which is still fantastic and I'm glad I read it but I would really like to read a similar book about knitting in the UK if one existed as that would make it so much more personal to my own experiences. Something I may just have to investigate at some point.

Oh and to me this isn't a downside but is worth mentioning.  I saw it in Borders but left it and my parents bought it for my birthday.  Mum said it was hard to find as Waterstones didn't have it and Borders (at least locally to us) hadn't got it in with no plans to get it in again.  They got it from Amazon.  Personally I wouldn't find that a big deal other than having to wait a few days but my parents rarely use Amazon so it was.